Liverpool have made an offer to take Daniel Sturridge on loan from Chelseareports Ben Smith of BBC Sport. Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers is desperately short of strikers at the moment, with only Luis Suarez and Fabio Borini as regular players for the position.

Rodgers' new Moroccan recruit Oussama Assaidi from Heerenveen in the Dutch League is also capable of playing as a striker, but whether the move will work in a new and tougher league is anyone's guess.

Adam Morgan is also clearly rated by Rodgers, but even so Liverpool must bring in cover to add depth in a long, hard season that includes the Europa League, while the travails in front of goal from last season still appear to be present this year.

BBC Sport adds:

Negotiations began between the clubs began late on Thursday night, just hours after Liverpool allowed Andy Carroll to join West Ham on loan.

Chelsea are understood to be open to allowing the 22-year-old England player to leave on loan, but Tottenham are also interested.

Chelsea themselves are short of out-and-out strikers, but the Blues still have a plethora of talent that makes them capable challengers for the title, let alone try for fourth as in Liverpool's case. Roberto Di Matteo has deadly wingers who can consistently etch their names on the score-sheet, alleviating his problem of finding goals within his team.

For Liverpool, Daniel Sturridge will definitely represent more progress as has been the case throughout Rodgers' reign. The former Swansea manager has not even sold Andy Carroll and he may land Sturridge. That is pretty astute business for me.

Yes, loan deals do mean that you are probably developing players for other teams, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and the Reds must recognise the need to show improvement from last year.

It is quite interesting and simultaneously weird that Liverpool managers of the past did not consider loan deals for players of such caliber when the cash was limited.

Rodgers is showing the way in the transfer market and I am sure it will continue on the pitch from last Sunday, when Arsenal are shown how playing at Anfield can be the longest 90 minutes of an opponent's life.